Dog day afternoon scheduled for senate (AUDIO)

The first debate on proposed revisions in the dog breeding law adopted by voters last November will come this afternoon in the senate.

Senate floor leader Tom Dempsey of St. Charles has set aside the entire “Dog Day Afternoon” as he called it in a session with repoarters late yestedday.

He knows the topic is far more serious to defenders of what was Proposition B last year, who want no changes whatever made in the bill.

Dempsey’s district helped pass the issue, which had a strong negative reaction in rural Missouri. He says a lot of the drive for change is a matter of trust–that many outstate lawmakers do not trust the Humane Society of the United States, the prime mover of Proposition B. “And if you look at their actions in other states, there is some credibility to that,” he says.

Dempsey is one of those who wants to see the heart of the bill left intact. He expects the debate–and the vote, if there is one–to break along urban-rural senatorial district lines.